Praise for young partners

While Laremy Tunsil sat out at Alabama it was not left tackle but right that drew the most raised eyebrows for Ole Miss prior to kickoff.

Senior Fahn Cooper had moved into Tunsil’s spot at left tackle. He’d done that some last year as well, and had held his own in two games.

So too had Sean Rawlings at right tackle, but suddenly Rawlings, a redshirt freshman, was making an enormous jump in competition.

With redshirt freshman Jordan Sims subbing in some of the second half there were times Ole Miss had a true freshman Javon Patterson and redshirt freshmen Sims and Rawlings all on the line together.

“That’s a huge task against that front,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “They held their own at times and got beat some. You’re going to get beat some when you play that caliber of competition, but I was proud of the way they fought. They’re going to improve, and there is no question we’re going to get good effort from them moving forward.”

Cooper started at right tackle last year and has been a mentor to Rawlings early this season.

“I would say Sean picked up a lot just on his own. Sean is a kid that he’s real humble, and he’s hard working. He doesn’t back down from nothing. That’s taken him real far. When he asks me questions I’m always there to try and help him out and stuff like that. I just try to encourage him to keep doing what he’s doing because it’s working,” Cooper said.